The Marriage Counselor
by xSuchSweetNothingx
Summary: Esme is the most renowned marriage counselor in Seattle, and Edward and Bella's marriage needs a lot of help. Will she be able to help them fix their relationship? Or will their incompatibility cause her to give up on them? Edward / Bella. Drabble-ish.
1. Chapter One

**The Marriage Counselor**

_**Chapter One**_

* * *

"Good morning, darling," Esme's favorite voice wakes her from behind. Carlisle's arms hold her gently, pulling her back against his chest and opening her legs to press his morning wood between them. "It's time to wake up."

"Hmm," she smiles lazily. "Good morning, sweetheart." Her eyes open to take in his features.

Her husband. Her husband is the most handsome man she's ever met in her life. The most handsome man with the most beautiful personality.

"It's time to start the day," Carlisle murmurs, pressing a kiss to her forehead before getting up and heading into the bathroom for his morning shower.

She stretches out on the bed, moaning as her arms and back crack, releasing the pressure that had built up from the events of night before. She looks at the clock blinking 2:30 am to her left, groaning.

Being married to a surgeon means awkward hours with little time to share, but they make it work.

If Esme gets up every day, at whatever time he does, then they can have breakfast together.

If she waits outside of the hospital around lunchtime, then Carlisle can call her when he has a break and she can go in, and they can eat together.

If she stays up, with ever-heating dinner in the oven, until he gets home, then they can have a meal as a family.

And if they can persevere through their fatigue, they have time to make love at the end of their day.

It's not a life of ease, but it's a life of love, and that's all they've ever wanted.

Once she's sure that her legs can handle it, she rolls out of bed and go downstairs to make breakfast. By the time Carlisle comes down the stairs, she's finished. Swiss and pepper omelets, turkey bacon and whole grain toast, with a glass of orange juice; what better way is there to start a day?

"This is amazing! Thank you so much," he says through a mouthful of bacon.

She giggles, "Anytime," she promises with a wink.

When he's finished she walks him to the front door.

"Have a great day at work," Esme says against his lips before kissing him firmly. Once. Twice. Three time.

"Hmm, you do the same, dear; try not to miss me too much."

"As if I couldn't."

"See you at lunch?"

"See you at lunch," she assures him, kissing him once more before he leaves.

* * *

**~ Harlow ~**


	2. Chapter Two

**The Marriage Counselor**

_**Chapter Two**_

* * *

"Good morning, Esme," Angela, her personal assistant, greets her with a pleasant smile when she walks in the front door of 'Cullen Counseling'. "How was your night?"

"It was very nice," she replied with an equally kind smile, "And how was yours?"

"The same. You received an interesting letter today," she informs her, shuffling around the papers on her desk before holding up an envelope in the air.

"Oh?" Esme murmurs, taking the envelope from her hands, "What's interesting about it?"

"Well . . . it's a personal letter. I don't think that you know the sender, either."

Looking down at the envelope Esme realizes that, yes, it does seem like a personal letter and that, no, she doesn't know a Ms. Alice Brandon. "This came in just this morning?"

Angela nods and then the phone begins to ring. On the second ring she says, "Excuse me," and then answers it, "Hello, this is Angela Weber of Cullen Counseling. How may I help you?" She nods her head twice, raising her eyebrows at Esme, "Hello, Mr. Cullen - er, Carlisle. Yes. I'll transfer you to her office. Yes, you, too. Have a great day!"

Esme moves quickly into her office and picks up the phone as she sits down, rotating her chair so that she's looking down over the city of Seattle. "Hey," she greets him, sliding her finger under the flap of the envelope to open it.

"Hello, darling. I'm actually calling to say that, unfortunately, I'm not going to have time for lunch today. I have a heart transplant scheduled for eleven-thirty."

She frowns, "That's okay. You should still eat something, though; I'll drop a sandwich off at the front desk for you."

"You don't have to do -"

"Nonsense," she interrupts him, "I can't let my man starve."

He chuckles through the line, "If you really want to. I appreciate it. Well, I have to go now; I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Dinner?"

"Dinner."

The puts the phone down and pulls out the scribbled-on piece of paper from the envelope.

She reads.

**Dear Esme Cullen,**

**I'm sure that you have better things to do, but I really need to request your help.**

**Now, I will warn you . . . you have probably never received a letter like this before, but I have to ask you read through the whole letter before you make a decision on whether you will help me or not.**

**I guess I'll get the bad things out of the way first . . . I'm don't have nearly enough money to pay you for the amount of work that is required for you to save this marriage, a marriage that is not my own, and that the people _in_ the marriage, my best friend and my brother, don't think that there's anything wrong with their relationship. Wait, that's not right . . . they know that they're not happy, but they aren't doing anything to fix it.**

**If your still with me after that then you're a saint, because, personally, if I were in your place . . . I probably would have put the paper in the shredder after a sentence like that. It may seem like a waste of time but . . . if you can help them, I assure you that it will be the most memorable case you've ever had.**

**No I guess I'll get to their problems. I'm only going to list them, because it will take too long to tell you everything, and if you are willing to take on their case you'll see it relatively early on.**

**1. They don't communicate.**

**2. They fight about money.**

**3. They don't have sex.**

**4. They fight about who should take care of the house.**

**5. Their relationship is not a priority to either of them.**

**6. They consider themselves victims to the other.**

**7. They don't trust each other.**

**8. They resent each other.**

**9. They feel superior to each other.**

**10. They blame each other for everything.**

**11. They fight about whose a harder worker.**

**12. They fight about their in-laws.**

**13. They insult each other's intelligence and appearance.**

**There's actually probably more than that, but you'll have to figure that out on your own.**

**Now the ball is in your court.**

**If you're interested, give me a call and I'll give you all the information you need.**

**Thank you so much for your time,**

**Alice**

'_Wow_,' Esme thinks to herself, '_This is like, the ultimate case.'_

She sits quietly in her chair for a moment, mulling over the pros and cons of taking on such a complicated case for no financial benefit at all. Then she reaches for her phone and dials Angela's desk, and when she picks up she says, "Angela? Cancel all of my appointments for the next week."

* * *

_**A/N: **A review got me to thinking about the definition of a healthy marriage, and in my opinion a healthy marriage is not based on evident equality, but on happiness. __Esme doesn't do all the things that she does to spend time with her husband for him, she does it for their relationship. _

_If she did not do everything that she does, they would never see each other, and they wouldn't last._

_I am curious to hear what your definition of a healthy marriage is, though, so please leave it as a review or PM me. I'd love to know :)_

* * *

**~ Harlow ~**


	3. Chapter Three

**The Marriage Counselor**

_**Chapter Three**_

* * *

Bella shuffles around the apartment, picking up stray items and running a cloth over the furniture to remove the dust that lay there. "How is this house always so filthy?" she asks herself in her frustration, throwing a handful of socks in the laundry basket. "Oh, I know why . . ." she trails off, dropping the cloth to rub the sleep form her eyes.

She wants to clean up the house a bit before meeting Rosalie at the gym, but since she woke late she doesn't have much time to do that.

'_I'm just going to run a load of wash, empty the dishwasher and walk the dogs; then I'm_ _leaving,_' she promises herself, moving to do just that. But then she sees the clock, and she knows that if she shows up late for her appointment her trainer will leave, and she won't refund the session.

And there is no way a fifty dollar session is going to be wasted.

Bella sighs, and though she knows that this will probably turn into a fight later, one about how she doesn't contribute to her's and Edward's life together, she can't find it in herself to care.

They'll fight and that'll be it. She could just bring up something that he does to take the focus off of her not cleaning. '_Besides,_' she thinks to herself, '_That asshole can clean up around here every once in a while; it's his mess, too_.'

She calls Ace and Luna, her bulldogs, and takes them for a quick walk.

The walk isn't quick because she's rushing them, though; it's quick because they tire a mere minute into the walk.

When she pulls into the parking lot of the gym Rosalie is waiting in front of the building, tapping her foot and staring at the time on her phone. "You're late," she remarks as Bella approaches.

Bella rolls her eyes, "Well I'm here now. It's not like you're one to stick to a time schedule," she replies dryly, referring to the fact that Rosalie always has her work out for longer than she wants too. Each session is supposed to be two hours but Rosalie often takes it to a third.

"Whatever; let's just get started. From that mirror to the other," she says, pointing to two opposite side of the gym, "Forty suicides; and try to do it without disrupting anyone else this time, would ya'?"

"What about a warm up?"

"Walking to the front door was your warm up. If you would have gotten here on time -"

"Yeah, yeah; I'm going," Bella interrupts her.

Once she's finished the suicide she does fifty lunges. Then she does three sets of thirty squats. Then she does sixty push ups.

Then she needs to excuse herself to throw-up in the girls room, from the intensity of the workout.

And when she comes back out, Rosalie directs her to the weights. "So how was your night?" Rosalie asks as Bella leg presses two hundred pounds.

"Fantastic," comes her sarcastic reply.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"There's not much to say."

"You complain more than anyone I've ever met in my life; surely you can voice why your night was less than fantastic," Rosalie mutters.

Bella shrugs her shoulders, resting for a moment before she starts her next set. "Edward's just an ass."

"You say that everyday," Rosalie reminds her.

"Well . . . it's true."

"Well what did he do specifically last night?"

"I was_ trying_ to ask him if he made Ace and Luna an appointment at the groomers, and he just kept turning up the volume on the television."

"And what did you do?"

"I called him an asshole and called the groomers. He did make the appointment; but I mean really, how hard is it to just say _yes_?"

Rosalie laughs but she shakes her head. The dogs grooming appointment shouldn't be more important to Bella than the fact that there's clearly something wrong with their relationship. "And what did you say when he came into the bedroom? Or were you already asleep?"

"Oh," Bella says, resuming her work on the leg press, "He sleeps on the couch."

"_What_?" Rosalie knew it was bad, but she hadn't realized that their relationship was so bad that they didn't even sleep in the same room anymore. "Why?"

"Eh, it's just better," Bella shrugs, "He snores really loud and I have a tendency to move around. It's the only way to two of us get a good nights sleep." It was only logical. Otherwise neither of them would get a wink of sleep.

"And you think that's healthy?"

"Look," Bella snaps, glaring at Rosalie, "You've already made me give up bread, rice and ice cream; you can't expect me to give up my sleep as well."

"That's not what I meant; I meant do you think that you and Edward have a healthy relationship?"

She's offended by the question. She does consider Rosalie a friend, but that's overstepping the boundaries a little bit. "You're not a marriage counselor, Rosalie. It's normal for married couples to fight."

"Have you considered seeking help?" Rosalie inquires, putting her hand on her shoulder. '_Surely she's at least thought of it._'

"How about you stick to weight training?" Bella suggests rudely, before standing up quickly and moving to another weight machine.

* * *

**~ Harlow ~**


	4. Chapter Four

**The Marriage Counselor**

_**Chapter Four**_

* * *

Edward is hammering a shingle down on his customer's roof, working alongside his business partner Garrett.

"Kate has been so hormonal lately," he groans.

"Garrett . . . she's pregnant," he replies, "What exactly do you expect?"

"For her to maybe be a little more _quiet_ about it," he mutters, causing Edward to laugh. "Seriously! Last night she came storming into the bedroom, accusing me of not being attracted to her anymore, saying that I thought she was fat and disgusting."

Edward's jaw drops, "She's _pregnant_."

"I know! That's what I said!"

Edward laughs again, shaking his head, "At least she has a reason to be on your ass; Bella was all over me last night."

"In the good way?"

He scoffs. "If you consider having your girl screaming in your face a good thing, then yes."

"Damn . . . why was she mad? Do you know?" Garrett knows how hard it is to understand females sometimes. "Is it her time of the month, or something?"

"The fuck if I know," he mutters, rubbing his palms against his sweaty face. The scalding sun isn't helping his mood in the least. "She kept asking me if I made the dogs their appointments, if I did when they were, and if I made them at the usual place. I told her to wait a minute 'cause I was trying to watch the game and she went off."

"Wow," he speaks his thoughts. Kate would quite literally _kill_ him if he wasn't over eager to have any kind of conversation with her. At least at this point in her pregnancy, she would. "Do you guys always fight so much?"

"Only for the past couple years."

"I didn't realize that; you never talk about it."

"Well, I'm not really one to complain," he says.

Unbeknownst to him, he's revealing one of the many problems in his relationship.

Lack of communication.

"That sucks man," Garrett says, patting Edward's shoulder.

"Yeah," Edward sighs, "It really does."

* * *

_**A/N: **Though I have to be honest and say that I don't feel it's right that I should have to defend this fic so much so early on, I will say that you have to realize that this is only the fourth chapter. You guys have no idea what Carlisle does or doesn't do for Esme. All that has been revealed is that Esme is more than happy to sacrifice some of her time and sleep to be with her husband, who has a very time-consuming job._

* * *

**~ Harlow ~**


	5. Chapter Five

**The Marriage Counselor**

_**Chapter Five**_

* * *

By the time Bella gets home it's four o'clock, and Edward is due home in an hour.

After the gym she went to the grocery store, which took up a good two hours, only to come home the mess that she'd decided to leave behind in order to get in her session with Rose.

'_Ugh,'_ she groans internally, _'I really don't feel like doing this.'_

But she knows that if she doesn't, it's going to turn into a fight. And while earlier she was okay with that . . . she's not really in the mood anymore. She just wants to have a quiet, peaceful night.

In order for that to happen she knows that she has to get a lot done in a little bit of time. So after she puts the groceries away and walks the dogs, she gets to work.

She throws a load of wash on.

She vacuums the carpets.

She scrubs the kitchen.

She empties the dishwasher.

She makes the bed.

And right before she's about to start folding the wash, after an hour and a half of extensive cleaning, Edward walks in the door.

"Hello," she greets him from her position on the couch.

"Hi," his response is short, and he walks past her, up the stairs to the loft. The hissing of the chair when he sits can be heard from where she sits.

Her brows furrow, _'That's it? Hi?'_ She shakes her head, _'Whatever._'

She goes back to folding the wash, only stopping to pet Ace on the head once or twice when he starts moaning at her for attention. "Hey, baby. How was your day?" she asks him as he leans his head into her palm. "Did you miss me? Can I have a kiss?" She leans down and purses her lips, and he presses his snout against them in his special way of kissing.

Edward rolls his eyes from his seat up the stairs as she says, "You give the best kisses."

Leave it to his wife to be more interested in the dog than him.

"Is dinner almost ready?" he calls down.

_'Oh, shit; forgot,'_ she thinks. "I didn't have time to make it today," she says with a glance at the clock, reading 6:45 pm, "And it's too late for me to start now. I'll order something. What are you in the mood for?"

"What do you mean you didn't make dinner?" he asks, "What have you done all day?"

Her jaw drops.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes; you certainly aren't bringing home any money; what contribution are you making?"

"Well let's see," she spats, stalking up the stairs, "I cleaned the floors, dusted, took care of the dogs, did the laundry, as well as the dishes; need I go on? What do you do in the house?"

"Me?" he hisses, standing now, "I guess you've forgotten; I'm the one who has bought _everything in this house_."

"That's not even true; I can't even look at you," she says, turning around and going back down the stairs.

Edward follows her, "You're the one that came up here to yell at me!"

Neither of them hears the doorbell ring.

"I don't know why I even try anymore."

"Define try."

"God, Edward! Why are you such an asshole?"

"Why are you such a burden?"

"Why did I ever like you?"

"Why am I keeping you?"

"I can't stand you!"

"Yeah well I'm certainly not getting laid."

The doorbell rings again, but neither of them hear it over their yelling.

The dogs start to bark, jumping at the door.

"Are you _crazy_? Do you honestly think I'd; you're insane."

"You never you used to have a problem with it; you used to jump at the chance."

"Don't act like it's all on me; you haven't even _tried_ since – since – since I gained weight."

"Well I'm certainly not attracted to you for your personality."

"Fuck you!"

"I thought you didn't want to anymore."

"I don't."

Finally the dogs barking get their attention.

"I'm going to go answer the door," Bella spits, "And as I'm doing so, you can pack up your bags. I want you out tonight."

"Like you could afford this place without me; you'd have to get – oh no I'm going to say it," he puts his hand over his mouth dramatically, "_A job!_"

"Whatever," she rolls her eyes, and pulls open the door.

A woman stands before her; a beautiful woman.

_'I swear to god if this bitch asks for Edward I'm going to castrate, beat and then hang him,'_ she thinks to herself. "Who the fuck are you?"

* * *

_**A/N: **Ace is a replica of my dog, Biggie, who I love very much. This argument has come both from things I've heard as my parents have fought over the years, as well as just general complaints I've heard that I put in argument form._

_Hope you guys enjoyed it!_

* * *

**~ Harlow ~**


	6. Chapter Six

**The Marriage Counselor**

_**Chapter Six**_

* * *

Esme is struck silent by the hostility that is radiating off of the woman before her.

"Well?" Bella persists, throwing her arms out to the sides.

Another moment passes, and Esme still doesn't reply.

"Edward," Bella calls back into the house, "One of your whores is here! I guess you forgot to tell her not to come after 6:30 - you know, when your _wife_ is home."

"Oh shut up," Esme hears a masculine voice call from inside the house, the sound coming closer and closer as he spoke, "I don't have any whores. It's _you_ who always wants to hang out with your _precious Jacob._"

"You know what?" Bella exclaims, turning back to face the woman on her front porch, "You can have him."

Just as Edward reaches the front door, Esme finally finds her voice. "Actually," she says, "I'm here for both of you."

"We're not interested in anything you're selling," Edward rolls his eyes.

"I'm not selling anything."

Bella crosses her arms, "Now is clearly not a good time for a questionnaire, either."

"I'm not here for that, either. Well, I guess I sort of am. I'm a marriage counselor -"

She is cut off by the door slamming in her face.

* * *

**A/N: **_This is as short as the chapters will get; I just wanted to end it here for dramatic effect._

_Thanks for reading :)_

**~ Harlow ~**


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